Rotoscope Animation

The name might not be familiar, but rotoscope animation has been a popular artistic form since its creation by Max Fleischer in the 1910s.

Put simply, a rotoscope animation is a form of digital tracing, in which animators draw over real footage, frame by frame, to create visually stunning pieces which can help to narrate a story.

Famous examples of rotoscoping can be found in the films ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, ‘Star Wars’, and ‘Yellow Submarine’.

Here at Stone’s Throw Media we’ve used a rotoscope animation of our own to great effect!

Working with Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, we created a rotoscope animation for a project regarding their “early bird” season ticket campaign for the 2015/16 season, which helped them to win a Football League award for the best marketing campaign in the entire football league.

Based around a rollercoaster theme, we charted the highs and lows of Wolves’ fortunes over the past few seasons by rotoscoping a number of clips of the club’s on-field efforts.

It was painstaking work at times, but it was well worth the effort! An increase in sales of over 14% showed that the campaign was a fantastic success and that rotoscope animation can really work wonders.

The video embedded above features some rotoscope animation projects we have worked on in the past – including the award winning Wolverhampton Wanderers animation mentioned above.